1. David Taylor, Pimp my spreadsheet, FAST LANE BI
Let’s Get Started!
David Taylor,
Pimp my spreadsheet,
FAST LANE BI
Pimp my spreadsheet, bring numbers to life with Power BI~
We’ll have a few slides and a then jump into a couple of demo’s where this actually happens.
And I’ll leave you with links to all resources and content so that you can work with the same files yourself if you wish. And if you do, then you’ll also have my contact information if you need any follow-up support.

2. Introduction – David Taylor BEng. Dip Fin Fellow FINSIA
Owner / Senior Consultant – FAST LANE BI
Microsoft partner program member since 2014
MPN Competency: Power BI for data analytics
Certified in FAST financial modelling for Excel
Successfully consulting to industries incl.
Telco, Healthcare, Financial services, Property
Blog: fastlanebi.com
LinkedIn:
I’m a freelance consultant. May business is called FAST LANE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE.
My business has been a Microsoft partner since 2014 and has MPN competency in Power BI for data analytics
My consulting work has another stream – Excel financial modelling. As a finance professional I have certification in a modelling standard called FAST.
Industry specialization for me has been Telecoms, Healthcare, Financial services and Property.
My day job looks like this… I engage with business decision makers as a trusted advisor about if and how these tools and techniques might be applied in their business. The help them by either doing that work, directing it or training their own analysts to do so.
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3. What you’ll learn.. Excel financial modeling Power BI on top of Excel
Best practice guidelines
Practical use-case example spreadsheet
Power BI on top of Excel
Excel process steps to export to Power BI
Create a results table for one scenario
Create and run a Macro to re-run the model many times
Collect all results into a single consolidation table
Power BI Desktop steps
Get data from Excel consolidation table
Create a report with visualizations
Publish the report and link in app.powerbi.com
You will learn to combine Excel and Power BI to bring your numbers to life.
Let’s look a best practice financial modelling – so if you build a spreadsheet you might choose to follow a standard to make it easier to read, modify and use in future.
Next you’ll learn how to pimp it with Power BI
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4. Why Pimp my spreadsheet?....1 2 3
Appreciate the business context –
Clearly & quickly communicate with visualisations
Discover insights –
Graphically explore a single scenario using drill downs
Make better decisions sooner –
Interact using slicers to learn the commercial dynamics of multiple scenario options simultaneously
Q. Give me three reasons why it may be worth Pimping a spreadsheet?
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Interactive answers (repeated)
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A. Power BI brings brings number to life.
Pictures help to communicate (“a picture tells a thousand words” will reveal the business context in a glance)
Exploration interactively reveals business insights within a single scenario.
Interacting with slicers and filters helps you to learn about what really matters and where your risks may lie. Pimping can do this by putting all of the options at your fingertips to try out or compare.
So one set of 3 reasons are these [slide]
A picture tells a thousand words –
Clearly & quickly communicate with visualisations
Discover insights –
Graphically explore a single scenario using drill downs
Make better decisions sooner –
Interact using slicers to learn the commercial dynamics of multiple scenario options simultaneously
…bring numbers to life
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5. Audience? Analyst Executive
When to pimp?
Audience?
Financial Model (one scenario at a time)
Excel
Storyboard (static)
PowerPoint
Showcase
Workshop
Discover (all scenarios)
PowerBI
Analyst
Executive
Q. When to pimp?
A. When managers rather than analysts are the audience. When decision makers need to choose between alternatives or better understand behaiviours like risks. Eg. Need to say either Stop a business, grow a business, outsource or insource, centralise or de-centralize.
Q. Spreadsheets can model one option at a time. When is a spreadsheet a financial model? When is it just a spreadsheet?
A. Financial models have inputs, outputs, calculations and will mimic real world situations using numbers. For example – How much income will a parking garage make? How about a Power Plant which generates electricity and sells it onto the electricity grid?
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6. Financial Models Q. What is a financial model?...
A. Not just any spreadsheet.
Mimics a real world commercial situation via calculations
Q. What is the FAST modelling Standard?
A. Guidelines to good financial model design
Supported by companies incl.
Flexible: models must be easily adaptable when new information becomes available
Appropriate: models must faithfully reflect key business assumptions and avoid unnecessary detail
Structured: maintaining model integrity over time relies on rigorous consistency
Transparent: to make models easily understandable, calculations must be simple and clear
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7. Decision – Invest? Risks?
Inputs
Assumptions
Scenario selector
Financial model
Business rules
Calculations
Results
Income
Expenses
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8. Paste results into consolidation table
End to end steps
Inputs
Assumptions
Scenario selector
Financial model
Business rules
Calculations
Results
Income
Expenses
Paste results into consolidation table
Copy results table
Set scenario selector
Run scenario #1
Optimistic
Run scenario #2
Likely
Run scenario #3
Worst case
Consolidation Table
Optimistic
Likely
Worst case
Income
Expenses
Would a financial model assist this decision maker?
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9. Script ' CollectResults Macro ' Sheets("Consolidation").Select
    Range("B3").Select
    Range("ResultCollection").ListObject.ListRows.Add (1)
    Range("ResultCollection").ListObject.ListRows.Add (1)   
    Sheets("Results").Select
    Range("B2").Select
    Range("Results[#All]").Select
    Selection.Copy
    Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues, Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks _
        :=False, Transpose:=False
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10. Guidelines for Financial Models
The “F.A.S.T.” Standard
Flexible: models must be easily adaptable when new information becomes available
Appropriate: models must faithfully reflect key business assumptions and avoid unnecessary detail
Structured: maintaining model integrity over time relies on rigorous consistency
Transparent: to make models easily understandable, calculations must be simple and clear
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11. Guidelines for good modeling
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12. Hypothetical case study - BIOMASS
Your client is considering the acquisition of a small biomass fuelled energy from waste (EfW) plant in Prague.
Your team have been commissioned to prepare a financial model forecasting the performance of the plant.
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13. Energy from waste – 5 key sensitivities to profit
Tip fee? ($/ton received on arrival)
Arrival rate? (tons/hour)
Treatment / storage cost? ($/ton paid monthly)
Plant size? (tons/hour)
Waste quality? (energy/ton)
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14. BIOMAS operating performance report
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15. Summary At the end of this session, you should have learned:
Where and how Power BI and Excel
Make better decisions more often –
Interact to easily see commercial dynamics
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17. Questions?
me at Or tweet Thank you!
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18. SoCal Local User Groups Orange County User Group
L.A. User Group
3rd Thursday of each odd month
sql.la
SQL Malibu User Group
3rd Wednesday of each month
sqlmalibu.pass.org
Los Angeles - Korean
Every Other Tuesday
sqlangeles.pass.org
San Diego User Group
1st & 3rd Thursday of each month
meetup.com/sdsqlug
meetup.com/sdsqlbig
Orange County User Group
2rd Thursday of each month
bigpass.pass.org
Sacramento User Group
1st Wednesday of each month
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19. California SQL Saturdays
SQL Saturday in Sacramento 2017 (#650) When: Saturday, July 15, 2017 SQL Saturday in San Diego 2017 (#661) When: Saturday, September 23, 2017
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